Running

So after a 5 mile run I came home to great news. I got my bloodwork back before my latest doctor visit tomorrow. My A1C was 5.2. December 2014 my A1C was 7.2 and my doctor wanted to put me on a second medication, one that’s strongly linked with causing liver problems.

No, thank you!

I had already been taking Metformin since August 2008. Well, that was the kick up the butt I needed. I joined @MyFitnesspal and started running and by April 21st (my birthday) I was able to stop taking Metformin altogether. I have been drug free since then. I lost a total of 35 lbs since I started that health journey. I have had no problem maintaining my weight loss.

In June 2015 my A1C was 5.8. Last August it was 5.3 and now it’s down to 5.2. For those that don’t know, the A1C is a blood test that gives a three month snapshot of how your body’s blood glucose level is. There seem to be some slight disagreement on the exact numbers but generally if your A1C is 6.5 or higher you are considered diabetic.

To anyone who is type 2 diabetic: You CAN beat it. You CAN get off medication. You CAN live a healthy life. But it isn’t easy. It requires a serious lifestyle change. It requires hard work. It requires dedication. The only question is…are you willing to do what it takes to turn your health around? I did. I’m living proof that you can do anything you set your mind to.

Yes, it’s a scary diagnosis to be given. Yes, it’s a life-changing moment. Gone are the days when you could eat whatever you wanted without giving it a second thought. Now you’re going to begin a system of trial and error. Finding out what sends your sugar into orbit and what doesn’t. The bad news is there’s no one size fits all. A food item that spikes one diabetic’s sugar might not really affect you much. The only way to find out is to keep testing after every meal. You need to know the worst foods to avoid. I can tell you common problem foods are pizza, white bread, potatoes and white rice. And of course cookies, chocolate, cakes, pasta…and the list goes on.

Depending on the severity of your diabetes, there are a range of treatment options your doctor may choose. You may be put on an oral drug, like Metformin. That’s the one I was prescribed. There are a range of other pills your doctor may choose. Or you may be put on insulin.

This is important. Your doctor is going to give you a ton of advice. Listen to it. The absolute worst thing you can do is bury your head in the sand and just ignore your diabetes. It’s a serious problem and it isn’t going to just go away. With the right attitude it can be managed, and in some cases it can even be reversed, I know this because I reversed mine.

There are two main causes of type 2 diabetes. Genetic and lifestyle. If your diabetes is genetic then there are fewer options, but it can still be managed. My diabetes was caused by my lifestyle. This is the one that can most likely be reversed. By changing your lifestyle.

Basically I gained a lot of weight and was very inactive. I didn’t really bother with any kind of exercise. I was diagnosed in August 2008. For several years I battled my disease. At one point it got out of control and my fasting sugar was averaging 170. That’s another thing. The best way to see how you’re doing with your diabetes is to test your sugar in the morning before you eat or drink anything. This is when you’ll have the most consistency. Because your sugar is affected by not only WHAT you eat but also by HOW MUCH you eat. That first thing in the morning test will give you the greatest consistency.

In December 2014 I went for a check up. My A1C was 7.2. The A1C measures your blood glucose over a 2 to 3 month period. Non diabetics should have a number less than 6.0. The higher the number the worse your diabetes is affecting you. If you’re managing your diabetes you need to aim to keep that number as low as you can. Mine was high enough the doctor wanted to put me on a second medication. When we investigated this drug we found it’s strongly linked with causing liver issues.

No thanks!

This was the kick up the butt I needed. I resolved to lose weight and get active. In many cases simply losing weight and getting fit can be all you need to do to reverse your diabetes. I joined an app called MyFitnessPal. It’s a calorie counting app that lets you track the calories you’re burning. It also helps you track the amount of nutrients; carbs, sugar, fiber, protein etc you’re eating. A lot of people dislike the idea of calorie counting but I found it very effective and so simple to do. The great thing about it is it makes it incredibly easy to maintain your weight loss. Much better than the usual method of “going on a diet” by denying yourself certain foods until you lose the weight and then going back to your old eating habits…which is what caused you to gain weight in the first place.

A brief word about carbs. You’re going to hear a lot about carbs. Too many carbs will spike your sugar. But your body needs a certain amount of carbs as they give your body energy. Complex carbs are best. There are plenty of sites out there that go into simple and complex carbs as this blog is going to be long enough already! Switching to wholewheat bread and wholewheat pasta is a better option if you simply can’t give up those foods.

The other thing I did was start walking daily. Walking led to running. I followed a system called Couch To 5K. Google it. It’s a great way to start running if you think that would be a good way to go. It’s a great calorie burner and the weight just seemed to fall off me once I started running. Within a couple of months of this my fasting sugar was dropping into the 60’s! I halved my daily dose of Metformin and my fasting was still in the 60’s. I came off Metformin in April 2015 and I have been off it ever since. I can’t guarantee you will have the same results I have but there is every chance you can get control of your disease and maybe you can also get off medication. Good luck and I’d love to hear how you’re getting on.

I’ve just realized I haven’t blogged in quite a while. Sorry about that! So here’s my latest update on our health journey.

We went away on a sort of working vacation in May. Although we managed to eat within calories most of the time, we were eating out every day. We were also too busy to get in any real exercise until the last day or two. After we came back I guess I slacked off on my running a little bit. My weight crept back up around 5 lbs and I noticed my pants were starting to feel a little snug. Having gone from size 40 to size 32 I am in no mood to undo all the hard work I’ve put in!

So we made a recommitment to get back to the grindstone. I tightened up on my calories and got back to running. Our local parks department is hosting a weekly 2 mile fun run. I’ve been on three of them and each time I have been faster. Last night the temperature at the start was 85 degrees. Luckily the run happens at 8pm so the sun is close to the horizon. At least I don’t have to deal with the full heat of the sun during my run. This was still my hottest run ever and somehow it was also my fastest ever 2 mile run. I came in at 17 minutes and 1.9 seconds. My legs were like rubber as I crossed the finish line! Last summer I did all my running on the treadmill. I will still do a lot of my running on the treadmill but I am committed to doing as many of these fun runs as I can no matter how hot it gets. What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, right?

Even on the treadmill I am pushing my fitness. I now run 3 miles on the hill function. Which involves a lot of hills!

The net result of this is not only did I lose those extra 5 lbs but I am now .2 lbs away from my goal weight of 155! Now I have to decide if I want to maintain at a range of 150-155lbs or 155-160lbs. I’m not sure about that just yet. I love that losing weight through calorie counting has allowed me complete control over my weight. If I start to gain weight I know exactly what I need to do to get rid of those unwanted extra pounds. I don’t need to panic or freak out and go back to my old ways. I am committed to this for the rest of my life. And my sugar levels are still great. This morning my fasting sugar was 77. I’m hopeful I can stay off medication for the rest of my life.

And Chris is doing great, too. She is a BEAST at the gym! She loves lifting weights and I am seeing a real change in the way she looks. I’m proud of her for sticking with this. She has struggled with her weight for most of her life and knowing I have inspired her to do this makes me feel proud of myself too. I haven’t been an inspiration to many people in my life. I love that we are in this together. We hold each other accountable. She doesn’t let me off with anything and I keep her going too. Our relationship is stronger than ever. We are both in this for life. And I will post more often to share our journey.

So I just turned 48 a few days ago. On the 21st to be exact. The photo on the right was taken that day. I can’t stop looking at it. Not because I’m vain or anything. But because that one photograph sums up everything I have achieved in the past year. The photo on the left was taken in 2009 when I was at my heaviest. Just after I had been diagnosed a diabetic. Looking back at my life then it seems it was almost inevitable that I would become diabetic. Poor diet. Lack of exercise. Serious weight gain. Becoming diabetic was a serious wake up call. It took me a while to hear that call. It was only when the doctor wanted to put me on a second medication that is linked with causing liver problems that I finally woke up and realized I had to do something about it.

So I took up running. And watched my diet. I have lost 35 lbs in the past year. Sometimes when I look in the mirror I can’t see the weight loss. I know I’ve lost weight. I know my stomach is a lot smaller, (I think I just have loose skin issues now which is really annoying because every other part of me is slim.) But the brain seems to take a while to catch up with the eyes. Judging from posts I’ve seen on the MyFitnessPal forums this seems to be a common phenomenon. But in the photo on the right I can SEE how much my face has changed. For me it sums up everything I’ve achieved in the past 12 months. It’s a face I haven’t seen in over 20 years. You see, I wasn’t always overweight. In fact, all my life up to my mid 20’s I’d actually been pretty skinny. I guess I slowed down, but didn’t change my eating habits to match. So the weight gained. Slowly at first. But in the past ten years I had a dramatic weight gain.

But now I see my old face looking back at me. A little older, perhaps. A few wrinkles starting to show. A few crows feet around the eyes. But it’s ME. The real me. Not the bloated puffy face I’ve had to look at for a while. It’s like looking at an old friend. And I like what I see. I like how I feel. I’m so much more confident now when out in public. This healthy lifestyle is amazing. I just wish I’d started twenty years ago when the weight started creeping on. I can’t change the past. But I can make sure the old me stays the new me for the rest of my life.

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the health journey I’m on. About how far I have come in less than a year. And how much easier it has been than I thought it would be. As a teenager I was a skinny little thing. People used to try to fatten me up and just give up! Then in my mid twenties I started to gain weight. I didn’t notice at first. Then when I did notice, I didn’t find the will to do anything about it. I feel like I wasted two decades, the best two decades in my opinion, being overweight, when apparently I didn’t need to be. Because when I found the willpower to actually change my health it came easily. Okay, I shouldn’t exactly say easily. After all, I’ve put a lot of sweat and effort into my transformation. No tears, though! But as I gained the weight I always thought it would be too hard. I made a few half-hearted attempts to lose the weight. I’d go on a diet. It always ended in failure. I just couldn’t find the motivation to see it through.

Then in December 2014, while sitting in the doctor’s office, I faced a tough choice. My A1C was 7.2. The doctor wanted to put me on a second medication. I’d already been taking Metformin since 2008. When Christine and I researched this second drug and found it’s strongly linked with causing liver damage I knew I had to make a change. I vowed to never take this drug. Up to this point I’d only wanted to lose weight. Now my want had become a need. And it turned out to be pretty simple. Not easy. Not with all the running miles I put in. But it was simple. I started walking, walking led to running. And I counted calories. I’m so glad I joined MyFitnessPal. It’s a great app that lets you track your calories. It even lets you track your exercise. It definitely made my efforts easier to log. Losing weight comes down to one simple equation. Calories out have to be greater than calories in. In other words to lose weight you have to be eating less calories than you’re burning. Exercise is a great way of boosting your calories out. Running especially burns a lot of calories.

I guess the bottom line in all this is need will always trump want. Wanting to lose weight through reasons of simple vanity wasn’t enough to motivate me to succeed. What ever you attempt to do in life will always be much more successful if you NEED it more than you WANT it. Need is a great motivator. And when it’s a health need, that’s the greatest motivator of all. From being on the verge of taking two drugs for diabetes, I’ve been off ALL medication for ten months now. I stopped taking Metformin in April 2015 when I realized my fasting sugar was actually getting too low.

If that visit to the doctor hadn’t taken place, if he hadn’t decided to put me on a drug that could potentially harm my health even more, I might still be overweight. And I might still be on Metformin. Now I’m fitter than I was even in my twenties. Now I’ve dropped from size 40 pants to size 32. My weight is more or less where I want it to be.

I still have a need. My diabetes is under control. But I’m still diabetic. I don’t think that will ever change. We went out to eat Saturday night. I ate more than I have been recently. I also had fries. My sugar two hours later was 168. Which isn’t bad. A year ago it would probably have been 200 or higher. My fasting sugar was 91. Which a year ago I would have been thrilled with. But it’s a sign of how far I’ve come that I wasn’t happy with that number. These days my fasting is always in the 70’s and low to mid 80’s. Now, 91 is still just about at the normal range. But I wasn’t happy. So yesterday I made conscious efforts to eat less, to eat healthier. My fasting this morning was 75. Much better. But it served as a reminder that I have to be vigilant. That I still have to be conscious of not over eating and I still have to be active. It’s easy to imagine that if I spent a week eating like that my sugar would be into the 100’s. It’s all good, though. It just reminds me I still have a need. And as long as that need is there I will have all the motivation to keep on this healthy lifestyle.

Whatever you want to do in life, whatever you want to achieve, make sure your need is as great as your want and you can achieve miracles. Just like I have.

Yes, I know I already posted a blog today but sometimes a topic for a blog comes to you and you just have to get it out there. So I was thinking, it’s the season of the Resolutioners. Those people who pack a gym for anything from 2 weeks to 2 months, determined to get healthy. Then they quickly drop away. But why do people find it so hard to stick to something that they know will do them good?

The first thing is you just can’t put a date on something like this. If you decide, probably some time in December, that on January 1st you’re going to lose weight, quit smoking, work out, get a new job, whatever your resolution is, when that date rolls around you’re going to feel obligated to do it. Because you said you would. So this new thing comes from a sense of “I have to do it because I said I would. It doesn’t really come from a sense of I want to do it, even though you probably DID want to do it when you made the resolution. Basically it quickly becomes a chore. Something you HAVE to do. And nobody enjoys doing chores?

Am I right?

My becoming a runner didn’t come from a new years resolution. I didn’t even plan to become a runner. It just happened. The running evolved slowly. I used to walk laps around a small park just five minutes from home. Then I began to run the last lap. Then the last two laps. Before long I was running more than walking. By the time I called myself a runner I already had the habit of running. Now I can just lace up my shoes and go out the door without really thinking about it. I found I actually like running so keeping it going hasn’t been a chore.

If you’re going to wait for motivation to strike before getting out there and exercising, you’re not going to exercise very often. Motivation is what gets you started. But it’s fleeting and unreliable.

HABIT is what keeps you going. When I started exercising last March it came from necessity. Being diabetic and having the doctor wanting to put you on a second drug – one that’s strongly linked with causing liver problems – is a great motivator! I went out to my local park every day, whatever the weather. No excuses.

Timing is everything! You can start every January 1st and give up by February or March 1st. Until one year it clicks. That one year your desire for change becomes stronger than your force of habit that keeps you doing what you always did. When that spark happens you become unstoppable. The doctor wanting to put me on a medication that could cause other serious health issues was a powerful enough spark to get me out of my comfort zone and make me change my habits drastically. If that hadn’t happened I wonder if I would have lost that weight and started running.

If you’re the type who makes resolutions every year but can’t seem to keep them, you need to change your inner dialog. Stop telling yourself I HAVE to do this. Start saying I WANT to do this. I WILL do this. When you feel you WANT to do something you will find it much easier to keep it going. Let’s face it we’ll always prioritize what we want to do over what we have to do. It’s just human nature.

And look for the little victories. When you’re trying to lose weight it’s easy to become obsessed with the scale. If that scale doesn’t budge or, the horror, the scale starts to go up, it’s all too easy to just say “I can’t do this” and quit. But the scale doesn’t tell the whole story. People often go through a slight weight gain when they first start exercising. But it usually comes off pretty quick. It can be from water weight. Pay less attention to what the scale tells you and more attention to how your clothes are fitting, or how you look in the mirror. Clothes start to become loose, you can drop sizes pretty quick. Your collar bone starts to poke through. And your hip bones. Nothing motivates more effectively than seeing success. I was lucky. Once I started running the pounds just seemed to fall away. I went from size 38 jeans to size 32 in about 8 months. If I didn’t have the success I had, then I can’t say for certain I would have stayed the course. I became a runner for specific reasons. To lose weight. To get fit. To get off diabetes medication. The last one I achieved in just two months. The rest fell into place. Now I’m a runner for life because I SAW the results and I KNOW what running has done for me.

What running is continuing to do for me.

Whatever your resolution is try to pick something you can enjoy. Not everyone will enjoy running. Maybe you like to walk, run, dance, play football, play basketball. Basically, just move. Any movement beats sitting on the couch. Maybe this year you will find your spark. When that happens you will be unstoppable!

So 2015 has passed and is one for the record books. It was a mixed year with a lot of stress and I had to go through eye surgery to remove cataracts twice. But from a health point of view, other than the eye surgery, it has been a very good year. We’ve both lost weight and we’ve both gotten much more active. Now it’s time to ramp it up.

In order to make sure I don’t lose my focus I have set myself a goal of running 700 miles this year. As someone on Twitter pointed out, it’s the equivalent of me running to Pittsburgh and back! It’s a daunting number but my runs are starting to get longer now so I know it’s doable. I’ve already run twice this year. I ran 6 miles on January 1st, to start the year off right. And then on the 3rd I ran 8 miles. So I only have 686 miles to go.

Christine loves working out at the gym. When she first started going she could only lift 20 lbs. Now on some of the machines she can lift 90 or even 100 lbs! I’m going to have to work to keep up with her! While I also use the weight machines, I spend more time doing cardio, especially the Dreadmill. For some reason I have a block with that. I ran 4 miles on it last week and that took everything I had. I can run further outside than I can on the treadmill. Maybe it has something to do with boredom. I need to buy something so I can listen to music while on the treadmill.

We both want to wish our followers a Happy New Year and we look forward to sharing our health journeys over the coming year. Do you have goals set for the year ahead? We’d love to hear them!

I would like to wish all my followers a happy new year. Thank you for reading and I’m looking forward to sharing my running adventures in 2016.

It’s funny how this blog has evolved from being a business related blog to something that is basically a journal of health and wellness. I couldn’t be happier that this has happened.

As we prepare to bid adieu to 2015 I can’t help feeling a little sad. This year has been good to us, and to me personally. It has been a while since I could say that. We’ve had a few rough years previously. But I’ve gone from being on the verge of taking two drugs for my type two diabetes to taking no drugs at all. My sugar is under control. Only this morning my fasting sugar was 76. I owe it mainly to two things. MyFitnessPal and running.

Running especially has transformed me. I’ve lost over 30 lbs. I’m much fitter and happier with the way I look and feel. When I first started out in March I couldn’t even run a quarter of a mile. But a few days ago I ran my first 8 mile run. I still can’t believe I actually ran 8 miles. It shows my fitness is coming up.

For Christmas I finally got a proper pair of running shoes. I went with ASICS because I’ve read a lot about them on Twitter and in Runners World magazine and they seem very popular. I had my first run in them tonight. A 4 mile run on the treadmill. They certainly felt much more comfortable than the cheap pair of sneakers I’ve been running in up to now. I will give my new running shoes their inaugural outdoor run tomorrow. I have to run 5 miles to reach a new milestone (pun fully intended.) This will be the first time I hit 50 miles in a single month. That 8 mile run certainly helped.

It’s also a nice feeling to know I’ve inspired my wife, Christine, on her own journey to health. She has lost 22 lbs since July and gone down 3 pant sizes. She is also a demon at the gym. She’s stronger than she used to be and loves to lift weights. She’s giving me a run for my money! Her blood pressure numbers are coming down. When you have someone who’s on the same journey it makes a huge difference. We encourage each other. We push each other when one of us doesn’t feel in the mood to exercise.

So it’s goodbye to 2015 and hello 2016. I have so many running goals to hit next year. To keep increasing my distances. To finally run my first official race. Maybe to answer the question that keeps lurking at the back of my mind: Can I really run a marathon? I have my Twitter followers to thank for that. I’m following so many people who have run marathons and the way they talk about it makes me want to do it! It probably won’t happen next year. Maybe 2017. Who knows?

Whatever I decide I will be sharing on this blog. So, again, thank you for following my journey and I look forward to sharing more.

I had a pretty good weekend from a running point of view. Saturday I went for what has become my standard 4 mile run. My speed is definitely picking up as I ran the first 2 miles at a 9 minute mile pace. The last two miles were 10 minute mile pace. So my total run time was just 38 minutes. Considering I used to take 48 to 50 minutes to run this same distance, that was pretty fast.

Sunday my wife came with me to the same park. It was meant to be another 4 mile run. She dropped me off at the entrance and I ran the two miles to my halfway point. She parked halfway up and then walked up to where I turn around. I then planned to run back down to the entrance, then walk back up to meet up with her again. But as I approached the entrance I knew I still had something left in the tank. I knew I could keep going. I took a breath for five minutes then turned round and ran back up the course. I planned to run just one more mile and meet her where she’d parked. But as the car came into view I wasn’t ready to stop. So I ran the full two miles again then turned round and ran back another half mile. By now I was feeling twinges in my left knee so decided to leave it at 6.5. The last thing i want now is an injury. Especially with the holidays fast approaching. I need to keep running so I can burn off the extra calories! So the day after my fastest run I go on my longest run. I ran 10.5 miles in total. My legs were pretty stiff after yesterday’s run, but a long soak in the bath sorted that out. They feel good today. I may get to the gym later. If I do I’ll run another 2 or 3 miles on the treadmill. Or not.

The other great thing about the weekend is the weather was amazing! Mid 60’s temp on both days. I was able to run in shorts and a t-shirt in mid December! I could get used to that sort of winter weather. Of course, it won’t last. I have no doubt the cold and snow will be here before we know it. But it’s good to know I took full advantage of the good weather while it lasted.

It’s hard to believe that it was a year ago this month I received the final kick up the butt I needed to make healthy changes to my life. Last December my A1C was 7.2 and the doctor wanted to put me on a second medication to control my diabetes. As I had already been on Metformin since August 2008, I did not want to take more drugs. Especially when research showed that drug was strongly linked with causing liver damage. That was when I knew I had to change my habits.

Fast forward to March 2015 when the weather finally thawed after the frigid winter from hell. I started walking every day, then began incorporating running into my new regime. The running built slowly, but now it’s an integral part of my weekly routine. I try to run at least 3 times a week. Last month my A1C was 5.5 and I’ve been off Metformin since April. I still test my fasting sugar almost every day and it’s averaging in the 70’s and 80’s.

My cataract surgery has slowed up my fitness routine as I’m not allowed to lift anything over 20 lbs for two weeks after surgery. Next Wednesday will be the two week point after my second surgery so I’m planning to go to the gym and begin to lift weights again. I can’t wait! (Play on words fully intended!)

It’s always the way. When you know you can’t do something you want to do it more! I hadn’t realized how much I’ve come to enjoy lifting weights, but I really miss it. It makes me push the cardio more.

I lost another pound today. I’m now 30 lbs lighter than I was when I started this journey in March. I just want to lose another 5 lbs and really firm up what’s left. My fitness lifestyle is so ingrained into who I am now that I really miss it when I can’t do any one part of it. I just wish I’d started this 20 years ago when I started to gain weight. I can’t change the past. All I can change is what I do today. And how I affect tomorrow. Fitness and health are part of what defines me today. I know I will never go back to who I was.